Mr. Not so welcomed friend Kill or not?

[Sjisty]

My chickens free-range, so snake-proofing the coop is not possible - they just come through the doorway! My last word on the subject - I wonder if there would be such opposition to killing if these were rats we were talking about. Oh, no, don't kill it, relocate it! Any, and I mean any, predator of my chickens has to go. I am not into torture, and am an animal lover, but it is my duty to keep my chickens safe, so snakes, rats, birds, dogs, cats, etc., need to stay away or risk death by whatever means I have at hand. If it is your choice to relocate, so be it. I will not criticize you for that. I tried it and a few weeks later my newborn chicks died because of it. I have seen countless snakes on my property and let them live, just as long as they avoid the hen house.

 

[Bikerschick]

My chickens free-range, so snake-proofing the coop is not possible - they just come through the doorway! My last word on the subject - I wonder if there would be such opposition to killing if these were rats we were talking about. Oh, no, don't kill it, relocate it! Any, and I mean any, predator of my chickens has to go. I am not into torture, and am an animal lover, but it is my duty to keep my chickens safe, so snakes, rats, birds, dogs, cats, etc., need to stay away or risk death by whatever means I have at hand. If it is your choice to relocate, so be it. I will not criticize you for that. I tried it and a few weeks later my newborn chicks died because of it. I have seen countless snakes on my property and let them live, just as long as they avoid the hen house.

My girls all free range too. We live out in the country and they have more than an acre of land that is theirs to wander around on.
What they encounter out in a field... that's between them and it... nature doing its thing.
But when predators venture up onto my large porch, less than 20' from my door, where my chickens lay... they have to go.

 

[wildspurs]

What you have there is a black Rat snake. Someone said lock it in the feed building, well I went out to feed moms chickens today opened the door and sitting there was Mr. black snake staring me down. she wants me to kill it but I think he would eat a lot of the mice in her feed crib. What to do what to do.

 

[jak2002003]

My chickens free-range, so snake-proofing the coop is not possible - they just come through the doorway! My last word on the subject - I wonder if there would be such opposition to killing if these were rats we were talking about. Oh, no, don't kill it, relocate it! Any, and I mean any, predator of my chickens has to go. I am not into torture, and am an animal lover, but it is my duty to keep my chickens safe, so snakes, rats, birds, dogs, cats, etc., need to stay away or risk death by whatever means I have at hand. If it is your choice to relocate, so be it. I will not criticize you for that. I tried it and a few weeks later my newborn chicks died because of it. I have seen countless snakes on my property and let them live, just as long as they avoid the hen house.

Rats are a pets species, non native invasive animal, cause serious economic damage to crops, spread very dangerous diseases to humans, and have an ever growing population that is hard to control, with a very fast reproductive rate. The damage the ecosystem and cause many native animals to decline in number or go extinct.

The snakes we see here are native animals, most harmless to humans, cause no economic problems, help control RATS and other vermin, and their numbers are minute compared to rats. They are also very slow to reproduce.

Also many snakes species are declining in number, due to habitat destruction by humans, and persecution out of fear or ignorance. They are a natural part of the ecosystem and help keep their habitat in balance.

So really you can not compare the 2 different species.

 

[settingdusk]

Eh, I would keep it. The snake can only eat so many eggs and there are ways to deter him from your nest box. Ortho makes a snake repellent "Snake-B-Gon" http://www.scotts.com/smg/goprod/or..._snakes_away&gclid=CJPNgLzymrcCFU1p7AodTmYAiA They also hate mothballs.

 

[TheTropix]

Hi everyone,
I used to raise snakes, so I do have a place in my heart for them... the non-poisonous ones, that is. Just a couple of weeks ago, we found a rat snake that was the same size as the one you found. (about 4') in a nest waiting for breakfast to be served, lol. Well, I wasn't going to kill him for looking for some grub, but he couldn't live there. I took him to the woods out back and turned him loose. Like so many have said, he was back the next morning. So we took him a couple of miles away to some deep woods/little creek where nobody else lived and turned it loose. Should be a great habitat for it. I know a lot of folks' postition about snakes is kill first, ID after. I'd never suggest someone leave that snake alone and let it eat the eggs and babies, but these snakes are so very, very important to the ecosystem. Like the frogs, if they start to vanish it's a symptom of a much larger eco-problem looming. Luckily, I know around here I've seen a huge come-back of Leopard frogs over the last several years. oops, sorry folks, I really only meant to cast a vote in favor of sparing the non-poisonous snakes. Shame on the poisonous ones that want to hang around!

 

[Bigdaddy101]

I live in Texas where every breed poisonous snake that is indigenous to the US resides. I have become pretty inept at identifying poisonous snakes. However, I will say that I find it reckless and irresponsible for anyone to encourage or recommend that an individual who is not extremely experienced with snake attempt to capture or relocate a snake. I understand that there are characteristics of poisonous snakes that can be identified from a distance. I also understand that one time of false identification can kill you. These physical traits of pit vipers are also shared by many other non-poisonous snakes in America. I have captured and relocated many many non-poisonous snakes, namely ribbon snakes and spotted king snakes (which actually eat poisonous snakes). However, i have also miss-identified non-poisonous snakes and killed them. Rat snakes and black water snakes are a couple of the "difficult" to identify snakes. In the heat of the moment when a snake is threatening your livestock this decision has to be made quickly. I always er on the side of safety for myself and my stock. If you will accept for a moment that a pit viper can reach the extent of it's strike zone in only 0.04 seconds and a humans reaction time is is around 0.20, then you will realize that there is no room for errors. I have carefully instructed my family to not get close to ANY snake until I have decided whether we keep it or kill it.

 

[TheTropix]

Hi Bigdaddy,
The original question was whether to spare/relocate the snake or kill it, so that was my opinion. I, too, raised my kids to stay away from snakes until I could ID it, and either catch it, relocate it, or kill it, whatever was called for. I never suggested anyone send their kids out to get rid of the snake. That would be irresponsible & stupid and many other negative things. I'm not too far from you, so we see the same snakes. Bigdaddy, you gotta admit that Pit Vipers have a very different look to them, in part & overall, from most (I say most, not all) N/P snakes in this country. In the US, there are only a few poisonous snake varieties, and a lot of non-poisonous snakes. It's EASY to familiarize yourself with them on the internet. An all-kill or all-save approach is unbalanced.. at least that is the way I see it.

 

[mel51]

We are all animal lovers or we would not be raising our chickens. Whether we cull them or eat their eggs.Every one must be in my opinion be responsible for what they eat. I do not have a fondness for raccoons opossum or snakes. If they in danger my food source,as they would if I in danger theirs,we must come to a understanding. My understanding is this is my territory, my home and they are not welcome. They are relocated at least 10 miles away from my home. If they have killed my chickens they are killed. I will not let a chicken killer become someone Else's live stock killer. I always keep traps set and hope to catch them before they kill.I have released 23 raccoons, 3 opossums, 2 cats, 4 birds and have killed only 1 raccoon. Prevention is always the best step and i try this first. I've not had a problem with snakes but will now get me some moth balls for outside the barn coop. Will the chicken try to eat them?

 

[wlhtx]

Not to speak for him, but I believe his point was that it is irresponsible to tell ANYONE - not just kids - who are ignorant in identifying snakes to go out and try to trap them for relocation purposes.

I've lived in Texas my entire life and I'll be the first to admit that a rattlesnake is about the only one that I could identify with any confidence. A black snake, whether a rat snake or a poisonous water moccasin, would be hard for me to identify.

Again, our philosophy is to kill any and all of them (specifically because we do live so far out in the country, right next to ponds, and have very young children that like to run around outside bare foot).